Lanny Davis

The litigator strikes back with his own law-related insults.

* President Trump is preparing to declare a national emergency at the country’s southern border. A draft order is in the works, and $7B+ will be used to build the president’s wall to fix the humanitarian crisis he helped to create. [CNN]

* Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone was arrested early this morning in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. He’s been charged with seven counts: one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering. [Washington Post]

* Were you planning on taking the D.C. bar exam in February? Not so fast. Thanks to the government shutdown, you might not be able to do so. We’ll keep you updated. If you’ve been waiting to get sworn in after passing the July 2018 bar, keep waiting — potentially for a while. [Law.com]

* Michael Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, has called for a criminal investigation into Rudy Giuliani for his alleged witness tampering because “calling out a man’s father-in-law and wife in order to intimidate the witness is not fair game.” [The Hill]

* Like it or not, women still carry the bulk of their childcare duties, and lawyer moms often find themselves “deploy[ing] tactical maneuvers” to get the job done. At least millennials are doing what they can to eliminate motherhood bias. [Law.com]

* Congratulations to Kimberly Mutcherson of Rutgers-Camden, who was recently named as the co-dean of Rutgers Law School. She will be the first African-American and first LGBTQ law dean at Rutgers University. Well done! [Daily Targum]

* Believe it or not, you can still do a lot of extracurricular activities during law school. Just ask Ted Bundy. He killed up to eight women while he was a student at Utah Law. We hope your preferred activities are more… normal. [Salt Lake Tribune]

* President Donald Trump claims that Michael Cohen lied under oath when he testified that Trump told him to violate campaign finance laws and that the allegations are “totally false.” Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, has some words Trump ought to be concerned about: “audio and tape.” [USA Today]

* “I can fire him whenever I want to fire him, but I haven’t said that I was going to.” In other Trump-related news, the president has confirmed that Pat Cipollone will serve as his next White House counsel, and also confirmed that he’s still really pissed off at AG Jeff Sessions about the Mueller probe. [Associated Press]

* In the wake of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s highly political confirmation hearing where he brought up Clinton conspiracies during his testimony, Chief Justice John Roberts really wants the American public to know that the judiciary “requires independence from the political branches.” Really. He pinky promises. [CNN]

* If you’re interested in learning what junior partners are making at Williams and Connolly, look no further than Fourth Circuit nominee Allison Jones Rushing’s financial disclosure form. The 2007 Duke Law graduate pulled in more than $650K during her first year as a partner at the firm. [National Law Journal]

* This ex-Foley & Lardner partner “should have known better” than to backdate documents, paste his clients’ signatures onto them, and mislead the IRS during an audit, so he’s been suspended from practicing law for two years. [American Lawyer]

* Trump’s now claiming that Stormy Daniels is impinging on his right to free speech because weaponizing that right’s worked so well so far, why not extend it to this? [NBC]

* In the same breath, we’re now talking about censoring Google to “own the libs.” [Recorder]

* And the First Amendment now protects sharing food with homeless people, because apparently we needed a rule to cover being a decent human being.

* Don McGahn may be on the way out after spilling the beans to Mueller. Trump insists on Twitted that McGahn is not a “rat” like John Dean, but just as this whole administration is “Nixon, but dumber” McGahn probably didn’t realize what he was doing while he did it. [Business Insider]

* People are up in arms over Lanny Davis being an anonymous source for CNN, but really what was CNN supposed to do? They couldn’t say, “Davis refused to comment on the record” because that would prove he was the anonymous source. It’s where dumb journalism rules hang people up because the right answer would be to make no mention at all of Davis, but journos feel they have to indicate that they tried to talk to principal figures in any given story. Anyway, Glenn Greenwald has thoughts on this and he used to be a real journalist before he went batshit crazy. [GQ]

* California ends money bail! California, man. They’re ahead on everything. Getting rid of bail, legal weed, regretting Reagan…. [Washington Post]

* One of the actions Trump is “most proud of” is one he never accomplished. Sounds about right. [Axios]

* Vermont changes its laws in bid to become a blockchain hub because it’s all about bad ideas. [VT Digger]

* Lanny Davis, lawyer to Michael Cohen, was instrumental in leaking the Trump/McDougal tape to CNN last night. It’s now official: Cohen has turned on Donald Trump. Listen to it here. [CNN]

* Michael Avenatti, lawyer to porn actress Stormy Daniels, says he’s interested in discussing a settlement with Michael Cohen about his client’s “hush agreement” to keep quiet about her 2006 affair with Trump. Avenatti says a meeting was scheduled, then canceled by Cohen’s other lawyer, and now they’re calling each other liars. This is all par for the course. [CNN]

* A split three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the Second Amendment allows the open carrying of guns in public. This comes two years after the court ruled that the Second Amendment did not allow the concealed carrying of guns in public. You can expect this to be appealed to the Ninth Circuit en banc. [Associated Press]

* Dentons has come out swinging with denials against a sexual harassment case that was filed by a business development specialist last month, claiming that not only is the suit without merit, but that it also “misappropriates” the #MeToo movement. We’ll have more on thisinteresting development later today. [American Lawyer]

* If you live in a two-lawyer household, should you be sharing client secrets? The Ohio Supreme Court is about to answer that question for us, since there’s apparently no case on the books about anything remotely like this. [Big Law Business]

* If you’re thinking about applying to law school ahead of a career in politics, then you may have to work a little harder to — wait, nevermind, you can go to pretty much any law school since having a J.D. seems to be the gateway to government. [U.S. News]

* Bernie Madoff’s investment strategy may yield a billion dollar return… for the trustee. [American Lawyer]

* Lanny Davis is now representing Michael Cohen, which certainly doesn’t bode well for Trump. [Bloomberg]

* The fiance of Princess Mako of Japan is going to Fordham next year. [Japan Times]

* Federal judge rules that sanctuary city policies aren’t obstacles to immigration policy because standing aside is not the same as standing in the way. [NY Times]

* A disturbing look at the border crisis through the eyes of an immigration lawyer. [Mother Jones]

* Job opportunity: the Senate is looking for special counsel to grease the wheels on the effort to roll back decades of jurisprudence. [National Law Journal]

* Akin Gump is representing a woman separated from her children by the Trump administration. The representation comes as part of a public-private venture backed by the state of New York. The story is the latest testament to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s deeply held moral conviction that people shouldn’t vote for Cynthia Nixon. [Journal News]

* The head of Arizona Summit Law School thinks the school’s been treated unfairly. The nerve of these people. [KJZZ]

* ICYMI: Texas Supreme Court Justice and Fifth Circuit nominee Don Willett saved a man from choking to death at a Chik-fil-A about a week ago. Chief Judge Stephen Dillard of the Georgia Court of Appeals had this funny little quip about Willett’s heroism: “This Day in Judicial ‘Activism.'” [Houston Chronicle]

* If you want an easy way out of your Biglaw job, just follow these easy tips for how to behave at your firm’s holiday party. [American Lawyer]

* Lanny Davis has an interesting take on all of the reasons why — much to Donald Trump’s chagrin — the DOJ is not the president’s own personal law firm. [The Hill]

* Biglaw firms are swooping in like vultures to pick apart Sedgwick’s decaying carcass. The failed firm’s London office only has one partner left. [American Lawyer]

* “This is embarrassing, Mom. You look homeless.” A Detroit lawyer has founded a nonprofit law firm and she’s currently working and sleeping in an outdoor hovel during her “campout for justice.” She hopes to raise money to help more clients. Here’s her GoFundMe page. Donate bonus cash to a good cause! [Detroit Free Press]

Ed. note: In honor of Columbus Day (and Canadian Thanksgiving), Above the Law will be on a reduced publication schedule. We’ll be back in full force tomorrow.

* Justice Neil Gorsuch’s arrival as a member of the Supreme Court hasn’t been the most graceful, and word on the street is that some of his new colleagues on the bench may bear some ill will towards him. A rift might even be developing between Gorsuch and Chief Justice Roberts. [CNN]

* Because Gorsuch is the Supreme Court’s newest justice, he has to share his office with Leroy. He’s being hazed by Scalia from beyond the grave. [Associated Press]

* As part of its new legal strategy in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian election interference investigation, the Trump administration has decided to — gasp! — be cooperative. Trump’s lawyers think that maybe if they play nice, Mueller will publicly clear the president’s name a little more quickly, or at all. [New York Times]

* In other news, President Trump took to Twitter this weekend to invoke the Federal Communications Commission’s equal time rules because he’s sick and tired of “unfunny” late-night TV hosts making fun of him without an opportunity to respond in kind. Perhaps you ought to stick with Twitter, Mr. President. [Fox News]

* Much like what happened with Traci Ribeiro’s case against Sedgwick, Winston & Strawn is trying to push Constance Ramos, a partner who left the firm amid allegations of gender bias and discrimination, into arbitration. [Am Law Daily]

* Lisa Bloom has been criticized left and right for taking on Harvey Weinstein as a client. Even her own mother, Gloria Allred, objected. Because mother knows best, Bloom resigned as counsel. Lanny Davis has also left the producer’s legal team. Down two lawyers, Weinstein was fired from his own company. [New York Times]

* A Michigan judge recently awarded joint legal custody and parenting time to a rape victim’s attacker. The child involved in this case is an 8-year-old boy, and the fellow who sexually assaulted his mother also happens to be a convicted sex offender. According to the victim’s attorney, “[t]his is insane”; she’s not wrong. [Detroit News]

Harvey Weinstein is lawyering up with a stable of superstars... is it the right stable of superstars?

When a client goes rogue in the media, most lawyers would back him. This one calls him out.

* Here is Bess Levin’s take on the Groomzilla lawsuit brought by Todd J. Remis, son of a Goodwin Procter partner. [Dealbreaker] * What advice would crisis management guru Lanny Davis give to Herman Cain about Cain’s sexual harassment scandal? Here’s an imagined conversation. [The Hill] * And here is a real conversation — between […]

Last night we wrote about a high-profile lawsuit: 3M v. Lanny Davis. Yes, that’s right: the maker of Post-its and Scotch tape is going after Lanny J. Davis, the noted D.C. lawyer and lobbyist, along with his client, Porton Capital (a group of private investors). It’s a strange lawsuit, but the allegations in it aren’t […]

D.C. power broker Lanny Davis has been hit with a federal lawsuit by, oddly enough, one of America's largest corporations: 3M, the Fortune 100 company and Dow Jones Industrial Average component that's famous for such products as Post-it Notes and Scotch tape. When you see a large corporation suing a prominent attorney like Davis, you might expect a malpractice claim. But that's not the case here....

In yesterday’s post about the departure of D.C. power broker Lanny Davis from McDermott Will & Emery, a firm he joined a little over six months ago, we put out a request for more information. That request was promptly answered — by none other than Lanny Davis himself. The drama lover in us was hoping […]

Back in October, we wrote about D.C. powerhouse lawyer Lanny Davis moving from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe to McDermott Will & Emery. He was joined in his Orrick-to-McDermott move by Eileen O’Connor, the journalist-turned-lawyer who worked with him in his crisis management practice. Now, just a few months later, it appears that Davis is striking […]

Last week we wrote about the move of prominent D.C. lawyers Lanny Davis and Eileen O’Connor from Orrick to McDermott Will & Emery. Am Law Daily described the jump as follows: “Lanny Davis, a longtime Washington, D.C., lawyer who supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid and was a fraternity brother of George W. Bush, is taking […]